Causes:
Students left in a financial crisis- I think this is very significant because I believe students should be able to go to college worry free and be provided with
higher education and not have to get out of college with all this debt floating around them- it’s not fair. Some people don’t have the privilege as others and it’s
not their fault.
Getting a good education in order to have a high paying job- this is so significant because living in the current day you need a good education in order to get a
well paying job.
you could use something like high cost passed on to students. Some states have reduced some of their funding to higher education, thus students have to
bear higher costs. This could be the first cause you discuss and then the second could be getting a good education, so even if you have to pay higher costs,
students till feel need to attend higher ed, and then this can lead to financial crisis for students. So in a sense your causes could then be causes for one
another, like a causal chain.
Using the same topic you wrote on in your WP1, Exploratory Essay, your second essay of the semester will be a causal argument essay in which you look at
what has lead up to the current complexity of your topic.
In your first Writing Project, you explored our contemporary understanding of your topic. We talked about presenting the topic in the “here and now.” For your
second writing project, you want to consider the question of “how did we get here?” in connection to your topic. This means you will need to explore
events/action/ideas in the past that have lead up to the current way we understand/think about your topic.
In looking at “how did we get here?” you will explore background context and cause/consequence. In understanding cause/consequence, think of
consequence as your topic in the here and now. Causes are what came before. Sometimes it helps to understand your topic as a problem/phenomenon. See
Chapter 11 of your course textbook—“Causal Arguments.”
As you begin invention activities for this essay, you may find you end up with a lot of different possibilities to think about, organize, etc. For this essay, you will
want to focus your discussion. You will not want to present every causal idea connected to your topic, and one way to think about focusing is to think ahead
to solutions.
It is important to examine and understand causal relationships because this is often where we go when we think about solving problems. We look to what
causes problems to best understand how to solve them. So while you will not be writing about solutions for in this second essay (your third essay will be a
solution argument), thinking ahead to possible solutions now can help you focus on the kinds of causal relationships you want to address.
Final drafts must incorporate at least 7 appropriate secondary sources, and at least three of these sources must be from professional/scholarly sources
(such as journal articles). You must correctly use in-text citations and list all sources in a correctly formatted works cited page, using MLA style.
Drafting Goals: As you draft your essay, you want to make sure you address the following argument requirements:
1. What are the most important causes that lead up to our current understanding of your topic? You should be able to identify 2-3 causes that you want to
highlight in your essay.
2. Why do you think these are the most important causes? Why are they more important than other causes?
3. Provide a claim (thesis statement) in which you identify the causes you want to argue for as the most significant as well as a brief comment as to why they
are so important. This
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claim (thesis) could be more than 1 sentence, but you would not want it to be more than three sentences.
This will be the crux of your argument—arguing for a limited number of causes as being the most significant. This is not to say that other causes are not
important, and you do not want to imply that they are not important. You do want to argue for why the causes you identify are the most important.
You do not want to take on more than three different causes as this will dilute your main argument too much. As well, as your topic is complex and will have
many causes that are complex in their own right, you do not want to diminish your discussion by addressing only one main cause. If you find that you really
must argue for only one main cause, you must make a compelling argument throughout as to why there is only the one significant and important cause.
The bulk of your essay will be built around your argument for the causes you choose. In making this argument you will want to
–fully explain how the causes you identify connect to the contemporary understanding of your topic.
–make sure you fully explain the causes themselves as well as their relationship(s) with one another.
–make sure you address other causes, causes you did not choose as the most important through comparison to show why your causes are the most
significant.
Depending on your topic, you may find that your causal discussion goes back in time quite a ways. Other topics may have a shorter timeline, but for any topic
think about what has occurred in the past to lead up to where we are now.
Further Discussion:
Organization: the organization of this essay may be a bit more straightforward than your previous essay. The basic overall structure here is thesis (or claim)
and support. But know that this does not mean it falls into the 5-paragraph structure. Again, the 5-paragaph essay is too often a simplistic structure that does
not allow for a thorough discussion of the complexity of a topic.
You will want to present your essay according to the basic essay structure of Introduction, Body and Conclusion.
In your Introduction you will need to address your topic, identify what your topic is, why it is significant, etc. You do not need to tie in personal commentary in
this essay, but you could do so if you choose. If you do tie in personal commentary, you do want it to be minimal.
Also in your Introduction will want to introduce the idea of looking back in time to more fully understand your topic and look at the idea of causal
relationships, as well as present your claim (thesis). Of course, all of this information does not all need to be in your first opening paragraph, but it does need
to be in your overall introductory material.
In the Body of your essay, you will make your case for your causes, offer examples, research support, comparisons, etc. Think of causal argument as making
connections between/among ideas. The body of your essay will be used to show and explain the connections you want to highlight. Know that sometimes
one important cause will lead to another important cause, etc. The way in which you present your different causes in the body of your essay will need to be
logical and, again, you will need to establish clear relationships between/among different causes.
While, again, this is not an essay on solutions, you may find that your Conclusion is a good place to set the stage for a discussion on solutions. You do not
want to get too in depth if you do decide to address solutions, but you could address the way forward towards a solution. Whatever you use for a conclusion,
it must provide a logical sense of an ending for your essay.
If you find that you have material from your first essay that works in your second essay, you may feel free to use it. However, as the purpose of these two
essays is quite different, you do not want to pull too much from one essay without providing necessary revision to make it smoothly fit into your second
essay.
Research Requirements: You will use research throughout this essay to support your claim and make your argument. You will also be required to offer more
academic research for this essay than for your first essay; in dealing with background/causal information you will be looking to the past and should be able
to find academic source material more readily than for your very contemporary discussions of a topic.
Your paper must incorporate at least seven secondary sources, and at least three of these sources must be from professional/academic sources (such as
journal articles). For other sources, think again of using a variety of different genres. Think of genres as different types of sources; for example, a newspaper
article is a type of genre. An academic journal article is a different genre. A youtube video is another type of genre, etc. Think about where we get
information, the value of that information, etc. See the document on Conducting and Using Research posted in Canvas.
Visual Media: You are encouraged to incorporate visuals into your discussion in this essay if they are appropriate. Know that using visuals is not required, but
if you choose not to incorporate one or more visuals, think about why they are not necessary. Also, you do not want to overdo the use of visuals. A few
visuals can be very effective in presenting your topic. Too many can muddy your discussion. You do not want to end up with an essay that just explains
visuals. This would not achieve all of the goals of your essay. There are a few points to keep in mind about presenting visuals in an essay.
Know that anytime you use images in an essay, they do not replace text. You need to be committed to writing about those visuals to explain them, analyze
them, etc. You need to guide your reader through your understanding of those visuals by what you write. You never want to simply allow visuals to stand
alone as part of an essay. And you do not want to use visuals to make page count. Remember, the required page count is for your written text.
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Know that anytime you use images in an essay, you must consider placement. When you incorporate an image for discussion, you want to make sure that
image is placed near your discussion of the image. You do not want to force readers to search for the image to make sense of your text, etc. And, of course,
images must be visible to readers.
A visual is a type of research. As such, you must correctly cite all visuals though both in-text documentation and in your works cited page. Remember that
you want to provide a variety in the type of sources you use, thus, you would not want to use visuals for the majority of your documented sources.
Using Research:
You will be expected to accurately incorporate source material into your essay, using quotes, paraphrases and summaries. While there is no limit on how
many of each you need to use here, do know that you do not want to overdo any one strategy, particularly quotes. Also, you do not want your essay to be all
source material. You need to be able to make connections between material and you need to be able to illustrate your own understanding of source material